jpb in me":1ucc8h8b said:
Those grips just make that gun look amazing.
Question...what is stabalized wood? I have seen that term used here and would like to know the meaning. I have a small piece of of 50 year old black walnut that I would like to make into grips. Any tips would be appreciated.
Someone asked me this on another forum, here is my answer.
I do not do the stabilizing myself. I cut my wood into grip blank sizes and send it to the professionals that know what they are doing.
As I understand it liquid acrylic resin material is forced under high pressure to completely impregnate the wood where it surrounds the actual wood fibers.
Once stabilized, it increases in weight by 20 to 150 percent (porous woods such as spaulted maple take on more resin than dense woods such as ebony). It becomes harder, stronger, and will not change shape. The color darkens slightly, similar to the way wood darkens when you apply water to it. Because the acrylic saturated the wood fibers, the pigments in those fibers cannot fade through oxidation
There are various home remedies you may find on the net but I leave the job to the people that have the equipment and the knowledge to do it correctly. Stabilizing lets me use wood that would normally be too soft for gun grips in it's natural state.
It's not a cheap process either.
About using your wood...here's what I usually tell people.
I hear people all the time saying I have this [insert number] year old wood. Whether a piece of wood is two years old or 20 years old makes no difference. It doesn't get any better looking just because of the age.
The best thing you can do it take the grips off your gun and take some 3" X 5" index cards and trace the outline of the grips on them. Carefully cut out the grip shape leaving the rest of the card in tact.
Lay the cards on the wood where you think you want a grip cut from. This will give you an idea of what it will look like. You can use a plastic spray bottle with alcohol in it to spray the wood in that area. That will show you the approximate color of the wood after finishing. The alcohol will evaporate before soaking into the wood. You never want to introduce water into the wood. It will soak in like a sponge. Your wood must be dry before making grips from it which your 50 year old wood certainly is.
I've had people contact me wanting me to use their wood. After telling them to use the index cards like that they usually change their minds.
A piece of wood may make a beautiful jewel box top but if you cut something as small as a gun grip out of it, you don't see that whole big beautiful piece any more.